Wireless service providers create new markets for wireless devices and expand existing markets by making wireless devices and services cheaper and more reliable. Wireless service providers accomplish this, in part, by improving the capacity and reliability of the wireless network infrastructure, including the base stations at the edge of the network.
Many conventional radio access networks (RANs) adhere to the TIA-878 or TIA-1878 network inter-operability standards. By way of example, the base stations and other infrastructure entities in code division multiple access (CDMA) wireless networks that operate under the 1xEV-DO standard frequently support the TIA-878 standard or the TIA-1878 standard. The TIA-878 and TIA-1878 standards provide signaling message formats that allow network entities (e.g., base stations) to communicate with each other over open interfaces.
For a 1xEV-DO wireless network, when a mobile station (e.g., cell phone, wireless laptop) is handed off from a source base station to a new target base station, the target base station may use information obtained from the mobile station to contact the source base station in order to obtain information about the mobile station. This is done using a Session Information Request message, which is sent from the target base station to the source base station over a backbone Internet Protocol (IP) network that connects the two base stations. Upon receipt of the Session Information Request message, the source base station transmits to the target base station a Session Information Response message that contains the requested information.
However, conventional 1xEV-DO networks do not provide a mechanism for maintaining updated status information regarding the current version of the signaling standards used by network base station and other entities (e.g., mobile switching centers, packet data server nodes, etc.). As a result, if a source base station is operating under a more advanced version of the TIA-878 or TIA-1878 standard than a target base station, the source base station may send a Session Information Response message to the target base station in a format that the target base station does not understand. Conventional 1xEV-DO networks do not allow the target base station to indicate to the source base station the correct format for the Session Information Response message.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for improved wireless communication networks. In particular, there is a need for an improved 1xEV-DO wireless network that enables base stations and other infrastructure components to exchange information regarding the current versions of the TIA-878 standard or the TIA-1878 standard supported by the base stations and other infrastructure components.